Home
by ada511
Summary: Clara decides it is time to leave the Tardis and the 12th Doctor to his travels; to return home. But he has another option for her. Clara/11


**Title: Home**

**Summary: Clara decides it's time to leave The Doctor to his travels. But he has another option for her. Pairings: Clara/11**

**Disclaimer: These characters are not mine.**

**Timeline: Some relatively short time into the travels of Clara and the 12th Doctor**

**A/N: I was in love with the Clara/11 arc&relationship. But based on Peter Capaldi's recent statements it's clear there will be no continuation of that relationship in the future. I just needed a way to finish it the way I wanted to. There may be portions of my scheme here that end up totally OOC for 12 because I haven't seen him yet and there may be some portions that deal with TotD that aren't canon to that episode, but, as I said, this is for me and for anyone who felt like me.**

It was quiet in the control room of the Tardis. The Doctor, the twelfth regeneration of himself, stood at the controls with a face as melancholy and intense as space itself. He knew she was coming - his companion, Clara Oswald, moving through the halls of his ship with precise steps.

As soon as she entered the room, The Doctor looked over - not at her - but at the suitcase that she held in her hand. He arched an eyebrow, knowing instinctively that _the_ moment had arrived. It was the moment he knew must come, but still - was not quite sure how to proceed through it, "Going somewhere?"

"Yes," Clara squared her shoulders, "Home, please."

"Just like that?"

Clara opened her mouth to respond; and for a moment The Doctor thought they would head down their common ground; bantering and sparring in that way that they did. But she stopped herself and, instead, said simply, "I think we both know it's time."

The Doctor turned back to the controls, nodded solemnly, "Yes, I suppose we do." He hesitated a moment before programming the Tardis, stared at one of the blinking lights on the panel, "Clara."

"Yes?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Sometimes."

"And did you trust him?"

"Yes." Clara said immediately, then shot him a sheepish look, "Sorry."

The Doctor grinned, throwing a look at her over his shoulder, "And is that why you wish to go?"

"No," Clara answered, choosing her words carefully now, "No, I just… I'm sorry, I don't know if there's any other way to say it - I just know that it's time."

"No apologies necessary, my dear," and with that, he made his decision; The Doctor set the Tardis in motion. He dropped his head as he came to terms with the path he was taking her on. The Tardis landed and he made his way toward her, "I know that traveling with me - this me - it hasn't been easy on you. But I want you to know that... your wit and your strength of character - nothing has gone unnoticed."

Clara shook her head, "It's been my honor to be a part of your team. But- you've got Sam now. And I really don't think I can wait any longer to… find out about my own story."

The Doctor was still watching her intently; too intently, "Clara. Did you love him?"

Clara's eyes welled up, "The Doctor?" Then she smirked, "My Doctor, do you mean?" At The Doctor's nod, she shrugged, "Yes of course. And being so near to you when you are him, but aren't..."

"I understand." He walked to the door with her, paused for effect, "But - what if you had another chance?"

"Another chance at what?"

"At the life you wanted."

"What are you-?" She peered into his face, "You're not him." She shrugged, "I'm sorry."

The Doctor pursed his lips and waved the apology away, "No need, I assure you, my dear girl, no need. But that's not what I meant." He opened the doors of the Tardis. Clara blinked against the light then narrowed her eyes as a tumbleweed ambled by.

"This isn't right." She looked to The Doctor to explain.

"I owe you an apology of my own. My previous self kept something from you the last times you met."

Clara's skin went cold, "What do you mean?"

"Did you wonder at my - his reaction? The strength of his shock at seeing you?"

"To be honest, I was distracted at the time." Clara frowned, shook her head, "He sent me away. He sent me away twice."

The Doctor took both her hands, "Because you were already there the first time. And by the second visit- we'd already lost you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You had the life you wanted. You shared with him - us - that life. It's just waiting for you here. Waiting for you now - for you to step out and begin living it."

Clara shook her head in shock, "B-but I don't understand. I went back and I - My Doctor died and you-"

"But before that Clara. For him, here, before you came back again a hundred years passed. And in that gap I brought you here. You chose to stay. And… well, Clara, you made a life together that I can promise you - neither of us could regret."

"And in that gap… I died?"

The Doctor nodded, "But first you lived. And loved. For decades."

Clara swallowed hard, "He won't let me stay."

The Doctor smirked, "He won't have much of a choice."

Clara took a tentative step back, whispering, "I don't want to be foisted upon him. I want to be wanted, don't you see? I don't want our life to be some sort of trick - some inescapable trap."

At that moment they both saw the silhouette at the top of the hill just outside the Tardis.

Clara's heart shattered into a thousand pieces. She couldn't tear her eyes away, but she pleaded quietly to The Doctor - the Twelfth Doctor, "You've got to take me somewhere else, you've got to take me home."

The Doctor took both her hands in his, "Look into his eyes. If you don't find the home that you seek, then I will take you away again. I will take you back to anywhere and anytime you want, do you understand me?"

"But -"

"Clara, it's yours to take… or leave. Do you understand?"

Clara nodded, shaking. She took a breath and grabbed onto her courage. She walked out of the Tardis. And before she could say a word The Doctor; her Doctor - tall and gangly and wonderful - had lifted her completely off the ground, hugging the breath out of her.

He spoke quickly and quietly in her ear, "What are you doing here! I thought - surely you- couldn't have - Let me look at you." He pulled her away from him, holding her face in his hands.

Clara held onto his wrists, desperately out of her depth; trying to pay attention to every sensation and also trying to get a look into the eyes that had long haunted her heart. She couldn't have spoken if she'd tried.

"You're shaking, what's wrong - tears?! Why are you crying?!" Before she could answer he'd thrust Clara back against him which inspired a laugh from her. He pulled back again, enough to see her, but not yet enough so that her feet could touch the ground. "That's better, that's my Clara. Now... you've got to go."

Clara was put back on earth abruptly as Her Doctor pulled her back toward the Tardis. Their progress halted abruptly when he finally noted the other Doctor with narrowed eyes, "And who do you think you are?"

The Doctor took the step down to earth, holding Clara's suitcase with aplomb, "Hello Doctor."

The Eleventh Doctor pushed Clara behind him, keeping hold of her hand, "Hmm, so I wasn't so lucky in the age department next regeneration was I?"

The Doctor smirked, "You'd be amazed how little one's age matters when one has a proportionate face."

"Why are you here?"

"To arrange… a meeting of minds of sorts." The Doctor nodded to their shared companion, "Clara here wishes to be home. I admit to knowing her less well than you. I was hoping you could help us sort out just where that may be."

"Clara," The Eleventh Doctor addressed her without taking his eyes off the Twelfth. "Have you forgotten your address?"

"No, but-."

"Well then, problem solved. So glad I could help you out." He swung Clara around between himself and the new Doctor, flicking his hand out from hers. "Now take her. Take her back there now."

"Doctor, I don't believe you are paying attention. Perhaps you have forgotten that I know what you know... whether you would like me to or not."

The Eleventh Doctor swallowed, glanced nervously at Clara, "Look, if you're thinking of doing what I think you're thinking, don't even begin to think it. I won't sacrifice Clara's life simply to… satisfy my own selfish folly -"

"Doctor..." Clara tried to grab hold of his hand again, but he pulled away.

"No, Clara, not this time. Not ever again. I won't put you in harm's way. I won't have you wasting your life for the likes of - " Eleven glared at The Doctor, then back at Clara, "me."

The Doctor casually put down Clara's suitcase, "Doctor. I have a choice to make. Why don't you work through my logic with me?" He sat on the case and crossed his legs, "You left me with one charge on your way out. _Take care of Clara_. You burned it so very deep in our conscience that really, I've found it quite inconvenient at times."

With eyes immediately wet, Clara looked at her Doctor, "I didn't know you-" She couldn't finish the sentence when she saw his eyes mirrored her tears and he didn't pull his hand away when she took it.

The Doctor seemed to check his cuticles, then continued, "So where was I? Oh yes, my choices. So option Number One: I keep her at my side, as safe as I can make her… this would be the option you were working on before you decided to take on this suicide mission of complete uselessness. As you well know, this has no real guarantees and, as Clara and I have proven - is not terribly satisfying. Option the Second: I send her back to her time on Earth. Let her live her precarious life out there making decent choices, building a solid, but rather unremarkable existence there because she cannot stop secretly pining for-"

"Doctor!" Clara protested, both hands clasped around Eleven's hand now.

The Doctor gave her a closed mouth smile, "Sorry, what was I on?"

"Option three." Clara said pointedly.

"Ah yes, Option Three: Bring her to the one spot in the universe that I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she will live a long healthy life loved foolishly, but completely, by-"

"No! Don't say it! I know your tricks you old goat…." Clara met The Twelfth Doctor's eyes while the Eleventh Doctor continued to protest, "You don't get to trap her here!"

Twelve stood up and a silent message passed between he and Clara. She gave him a half smile, realizing finally that he must have known the entirety of their time together that this time would come. She tugged on the hand of her Doctor, waited for him to look at her before calmly saying, "Love isn't a trap Doctor." He looked at her in shock, and she continued, "You charged me with something too. You told me to stay and take care of him. I don't know if that's happened for you yet - but you called me and you told me that he was scared. That he needed me." She glanced to Twelve, then back to Eleven, "But it wasn't true. He wasn't the one that was scared. And he's not the one that needs me."

Then, as if they had choreographed it, the Twelfth Doctor and his first companion moved apart simultaneously. Clara took a step even closer to her Doctor, brought a hand up to his face while The Doctor stepped back into the Tardis; As Clara stretched up to kiss her Doctor, Twelve closed the blue doors.

It would be the last time she would ever hear the sound of the Tardis; the last time she would see it disappear into space and time. But she wouldn't remember it at all. And by the time her Doctor had realized what had happened there was nothing left to see.

He shook his head, his long fingers still stroking her cheek after their embrace, "What have you done? My love, what have you done?"

"No need for those sad eyes, Doctor." Clara smiled - her eyes radiant and sure as she surveyed the planet on which she would live the remainder of her life. With one hand she grabbed her suitcase and with the other she grabbed the hand of the man she would spend that life with, "I've come home, that's all. Now, what's for breakfast?"


End file.
